Panama (song)

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"Panama" is a song from Van Halen's highly successful 1984 album. It was the second single released from that record and is one of their most recognized songs.

The song was written about a stripper, not a car as alluded to by popular belief. Interestingly, it was born out of the fact that critics accused David Lee Roth of writing about nothing more than partying, sex, and cars, he realized that he hasn't written a car song. In an interview with Howard Stern , Roth explained the meaning behind the trademark song. The sounds and some of the lyrics involve cars, but in reality, the song is about a stripper that Roth saw perform in Nebraska or Arizona, her name was "Panama," hence the title of the song.

During the bridge of the song where he says "I can barely see the road from the heat comin' off of it," guitarist Eddie Van Halen can be heard revving his Lamborghini in the background. The car was backed up to the studio and microphones attached to the exhaust pipe to record the sound for the song.[1]

"Panama" is also one of the few Roth-era songs that onetime replacement singer Sammy Hagar agreed to sing in concert.

"Panama" is featured in the videogame Gran Turismo 4 as the opening title song.

When U.S. troops used high volume heavy metal music to flush Panamanian dicator Manuel Noriega from the Vatican embassy in 1989, "Panama" was among the Van Halen tracks included in the sound barrage.